Amid ongoing rumours about Sonequa Martin-Green of AMC’s The Walking Dead having a lead role in Star Trek: Discovery, a captain and a cadet have just beamed aboard. And, as before, a spike in rumours about Martin-Green’s involvement overshadowed these confirmed casting announcements. I’m calling the rumours of Martin-Green’s involvement as such only because there has been no official announcement from CBS or Paramount Television that Martin-Green will be on Discovery. But, this photo that surfaced two days ago of several already-confirmed Discovery cast members partying with Martin-Green at James Frain‘s birthday is a good indicator that Martin-Green will indeed be on the show. Whether she will play the lead role of “Lieutenant Commander Rainsford,” as IMDb reports, is another question altogether – but, yeah, she probably will.
I’ve even heard rumours that Lt. Cmdr. Rainsford will be an homage to “Number One,” the canonically nameless first officer (played by Majel Barrett in Star Trek‘s pilot episode “The Cage”) who served aboard the USS Enterprise under Captain Pike. Now that would be cool. If Discovery‘s writers did base Martin-Green’s character on Number One, I hope they used fellow Canadian John Byrne‘s Star Trek: Crew as source material.
Star Trek: Discovery – “But Who’s the Trekkin’ Captain?!”
“Rumours” aside, the announcement that Jason Isaacs, most famous for playing Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies, will play Captain Lorcas of the USS Discovery is probably a welcome one to many Trek fans. Beyond simply having a varied résumé that includes six Harry Potter films, Isaacs’s credits include voicing Ra’s al Ghul, Lex Luthor, an assassination target in Hitman, and a couple of voices in Star Wars Rebels. So, based on his past with pop-culture, Trek fans can probably rest assured that Isaacs will take this role as seriously as he has others.
We’ll just have to wait and see what the relationship between the USS Discovery and the USS Shenzhou, and both ships’ captains, has to offer. Check out one of my previous articles for more on the Shenzhou‘s captain and crew.
Star Trek: Discovery – “Whoa, Tilly, Take Your Time”
The aforementioned cadet that will appear on Star Trek: Discovery is named “Tilly.” Nothing yet on whether this will be the cadet’s first or last name, but we do know that Tilly will be played by Mary Wiseman, a recent graduate of Juilliard who has appeared in Difficult People and Louis C.K., Zach Galifianakis, and Jonathan Krisel’s Baskets. As with the other confirmed characters, little is known about Tilly aside from the fact that she is in her final year at Starfleet Academy and has been assigned to the USS Discovery.
So, until the next casting announcement (I think the only cast member left to announce is Sonequa Martin-Green), keep your shields up and your phasers on stun.
